


Hakuryuu

by Leonawriter



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Gen, Youkai
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-27
Updated: 2013-06-20
Packaged: 2017-12-06 15:32:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/737274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Youkai are just as much a part of the spirit of Japan, even when Zero Reverse has sealed an entire island off and not many know the tales any more.  Simply because demons aren't believed in, does not mean that they don't exist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_"Be careful, Kyou!"_ _, his older sister said in memory.  "'Kaasan said we should be careful.  The worlds even more dangerous than before, yeah?  So- so be as careful as you can!"_

_He only had a vague memory of her.  White hair, like his.  Eyes the colour of honey that most would call brown, yet some would say were more amber.  Pale, sharp features that he'd recognise in himself when he grew out of the chubbiness of youth._

_Scared.  She'd been scared._

_He'd never thought about it at the time.  Older-sister could not be scared, because she was big, and strong, and more powerful than even he was.  Their father had died in Zero Reverse, and their mother hadn't come home ever since she'd left to find food one day.  His sister had tried to hide it from him, but he'd known. Somehow, he'd known 'Kaasan wasn't coming back._

_Fool that he was, he'd pretended, assumed, in his own way, that he was the head of the family now that their parents were gone._

_His sister - memory teased him with a half-forgotten name, which flittered away from his mind when he tried to recall it, now - had not done too badly.  They had stayed fed, if hungry, and she had allowed him his delusions, humoured him.  Perhaps so that he would be more ready than she had been for the idea that, one day, he woud be the head._

_He still remembered the one day he had decided to follow her out, and no one had been there to stop him._

_A gang of Satellite men and older boys found them, started taunting her, no matter how she rebuked them.  Kyousuke had been able to do nothing but bite his small lip in consternation - why wasn't she doing anything? - and then she was, when one man grew too close for comfort, and he went flying, hand burnt.  The others, shocked by what they had seen, afraid of what they did not know, angered by what a mere slip of a girl had done to one of their own..._

_They did as humans did best.  Attacked, duel disks instead used as beating weapons, and Kyousuke had cowered.  His sister had fought back, and by the end of it none of them were left standing-_

_But neither was she.  And not even youkai could heal a wound like that quickly enough to stave off death without help._

_He had heard her calling for him.  For him to look out for himself, to be careful, Kyou-chan!_

_He ran, instead.  She was his older sister.  He was supposed to be protecting her.  She would not die today!_

_He ran into the path of a Security.  He recognised the uniform.  Wary - remembering the many times they'd hidden from view, the stories he'd been told of her close calls - he tried explaining, in the small words a child of his age knew._

_The man at first dismissed him.  Kyousuke would not let go.  He wailed, he screamed, he hung on, crying for help, tears falling from his eyes._

_It was his older sister.  She couldn't die._

_Finally, they came._

_Finally... was too late._

_His sister had been only thirteen.  Old enough, to his young eyes at the time, to be nearly an adult.  Old enough to die._


	2. Chapter 2

That had been years ago now, and even so the old pains still lingered sometimes.  Not often, but enough to remind him of  _this is what used to be,_ and  _this is how it should be_.

He was older than she had been, now, a fair eighteen to her thirteen.  And he knew more of the world that had been shaped anew in his youth, a world which had hardened him and raised him without her, or anyone else.

Only now he had... 'family', of a sort.  Ones who would call him brother, and one of those who even knew the meanings that he would take from that, and did not shy from it, even with his own pride.

And as Jack was Neko-youkai, he had pride enough to spare - and loyalty, to those he'd deem worthy to give it to.

But Kiryu was the head, he was older, and he was more powerful.  And what was more, the others recognised this.  Not to mention, he was the one with the plan.

They would unite Satellite under Team Satisfaction.   They would make sure no one would use duelling as a way of controlling Satellite's citizens ever again.

Hanyou, youkai, human.  It didn't matter.   None would get in their way, and all stood equal at the end of the day, for this matter at least.

....

They had almost accomplished what they had set out to do.  All of Satellite save the BAD area was theirs.  Or rather, in his eyes, their territory.

And anything, any _one_ who encroached on that - well.  They were a threat, were they not?

Kiryu Kyousuke had been orphaned at six.  None of his kin had survived, not and were able to also find one lost cub among the thousands calling out, and their own need to survive.

He had never learned such basic lessons as 'this is the hunt', and 'this is when to stop'.  Only what he had been able to teach himself.

Jack had grown up around humans for all of his years, either hiding his true self from them or being tought, 'this is allowed', or 'this is forbidden'.   Knowing what was right or wrong from a human's perspective, and later learning of other youkai from Kiryu himself and the others they met, though not for long in most cases.

Jack knew when to stop.  And, just as a cat... walked off, pride and disdain clear to all, at the voiced thoughts that perhaps this time, their leader had gone too far.

_Desperation_ had clung to him.

_No!  You can't leave me!  I'm the head, the leader, you can't-!_

But apparently they could.  All of them.  All but one.

Yuusei.  Human, weak in strength yet strong in duelling ability and spirit.  Who had seen him perform feats that no ordinary human could, and call up fire from his hands.  Yuusei, who did not run.  Nor was he walking away now.

His only surviving 'family'.  Those who walked away had a tendency to die.

But he had a plan, and if he had the plan, then he had something to focus on.  Yuusei would understand.  He  _had_ to.

But in the end Yuusei walked away from him too, because, as he said, Kiryu was walking along a path that he could not follow down.

They didn't understand.  None of them did.  It was the  _only_ path he could walk down.  And there was no going back.

One last hunt, he'd promised himself.   _One last hunt, and I'll be sated.  Satisfied.  The hunger will die down._

His hands shook.  He needed to fight, to hunt, and if he did not some part of him knew that he would only keep shaking.

_One more_ , he promised himself.  And when the others arrived, he smiled.  He could make it  _their_ fight, too!  Team Satisfaction's fight.

Their last duel.  It had a nice sound to it.

But that wasn't what they were here for, Yuusei said.  They put down their duel disks.  

Even Jack.  Who should have understood, if anyone, why he had to do this.  Even the other like him could only look at him like he was a stray kit to be hauled back into the safety of the den.

He was not young any more.   He could fight his own battles.  And he did not need to be 'safe'.

In the night, he was in his element.  Not many, especially not many humans, could see well in the dark, and this meant he could move around them, before they saw him coming.  If the rest of them wouldn't fight with him, then this would be  _his_ fight!  As well it should be, in the end.  Youkai neither forgave nor forgot easily, and if he couldn't recall who had stalled so long as to let his sister's lifeblood run through their negligence, then he would simply allow the slight to pass onto them all.

It would have worked, had there not been rain, tainting his fires with sizzling smoke.

Even then it might have worked if Yuusei had not known him so well that he could predict where he would be.  Tackled him to the floor.

The man's blood had been  _his to take-!_ How could anyone  _dare_ to take that from him?!

More than that, as the Security took ahold of him.  Far more.

And then all he saw was one high-ranking man patting Yuusei on the shoulder, a gesture of thanks and congratulations,  _you caught the monster_.

His world came crashing down.

The rain, which had been weakening him before, sizzled and burnt in the air as his rage gave one last explosion before he was bundled into the Security van.  

" _Traitor!"_ he screamed.  

And yet inside... where no one could ever reach... he screamed soundlessly, angry, hot tears not touching his face. 

_Humans._ That part of him cried out.   _How could I have ever trusted.  No matter what, it's always the same._

_It means nothing.   Nothing's changed._

No matter how much he once might have hoped, wished,  _believed_ _,_ it had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Youkai - demon, or spirit.  
> Hanyou - half-demon.  
> Neko - Cat. Specifically taking (if loosely, for the fic) from legends of the Bakeneko.
> 
> This all started because I read a fic which named a certain (possibly mythical, possibly made up) species of fire dragon 'kiryuu'. I imagined Kiryu of 5Ds as a fire dragon and it all spiralled from there, regardless that I think it should technically be 'karyuu' or something of the like. Please correct me if I'm wrong, though!


	3. Chapter 3

He fought tooth and nail, all the way there, like a caged animal.  And in many ways, he was; he needed the sun, the sky, to be free, none of which were going to be his for so very, very long unless he fought-

And even then, they got him inside.

It turned out that even with his strength, heightened by _fear_ and _rage_ and _desperate purpose,_ they could pin him down long enough to attach him to the table.  Set up the machine.  Staying still, however, was more his choice than not - a criminal marker, he could live with.  Being blind in one eye, would be harder.  The searing pain as the laser cut the marks into his skin, he could deal with.  It merely gave him a reason, and excuse, to scream.

The hairs on the base of the men's necks stood on end.  In nearby areas, dogs would whine, and cats slink out of sight.

Kiryu started to find himself living in the moment, from one minute to the next, rather than run the risk of worrying what the next day might bring.  Or the day after that.  Whether, months and years down the line, this would still be where he'd be.  No, better to focus on the  _here_ , the  _now_ , the fight with this guard being  _punch-punch-kick_ , the next a  _bite_ , the next a  _heel-to-the-foot_.  

They learned not to take him lightly.  At first by hitting from a distance.  Then, by simply leaving him for days on end, minute after minute of isolation, broken only by his heartbeat and the rhythm of his breathing, until the next bout came.  

One day, something changed.  A glint in their eyes.  Something in their hands-

_Wrenching.  Torn.  NO!_

His deck.   They'd taken his deck.  His cards, his very soul... they'd  _taken_ it.

They thought that he'd given up the will to fight.  In some ways, they were right, and yet in others...

For some spirits, they could survive on the worship and offerings of the common folk, the miko, whoever happened to pass by.  Some fed on the very energies of their surroundings, taking strength from a living, green area full of life and feeling the pain as any would a stab to the limb when anything was damaged, killed within.  Others, however... others fed on life, on danger, on bloodshed.  And the battlefield was always with them.

Kiryu Kyousuke had never outright killed.  Not really.  It had been close, at times, but he had always managed to avoid it.  Yet he  _did fight_ , and even if he didn't use a fang of steel as the dragons of old did, his deck had done well enough for him.

 _Your deck is your life,_ some said, now.   _Your soul_.

None truly knew how true that could be.

And it had been  _taken_ from him.

Before, he had been able to channel the anger into purpose, finely refining his hate and rage into one will - get out.  Find Yuusei.  Make them pay.

Now, it all welled within him, merging and mixing and staying, aimless, within him.  Festering.  Wearing away at him, day by day.

At first, he had assumed the voice a product of his encroaching insanity.

 _"I am an envoy of the Underworld,"_ the voice whispered, silkily testing the edges of his mind.

He realised that it didn't matter.  If he'd gone insane, perhaps it wouldn't hurt as much.  If he hadn't... perhaps there was something to be gained.

_"Dragon in human form, have you lost your will to fight, allowing yourself to waste away unto death?  Or do you have the desire to remain in this world yet?  If it be your choice, you shall become a Dark Signer, and your desires will be granted you."_

Anything...

Something told him that he would never get his deck back.  The cards would be put in storage, if he was lucky, and if he wasn't, they'd be distributed among the men.

He might never be able to regain what was lost.  But he could create something new.

"There is someone... I wish to have vengeance on."  Pure, simple, need.  It  _would happen._  "That, and..."

He shook, his heart torn in two.  How could he say it?  One of the deepest, most hidden things of his heart, underneath the anger?  

The pain of heartbreak shattered under the weight of the God.

...

The first thing the guards noticed was a screeching of metal, from afar.  Kiryu's was hardly the closest of the cells in Isolation, and none of them were stationed nearby out of the very premise of the 'Isolation' idea itself.

Their first thought was that their high-security guest, who had been showing signs of giving in, had found somehow something he was able to wreak havoc on the window bars with.  Maybe even escape.

Their guess was close to the truth, but escape?  'Escape' was far from the first thing on Kiryu's mind as he made his exit from the tight cell they'd put him in.

Moments later, and they would be the first people who would come to realise that in their taking in of, and treatment of Kiryu Kyousuke, they had doomed the entire facility.

They radio'd in for back-up, but moments later their screams cut through the airwaves.

What was coming out of that cell wasn't human.  It might have started out that way, but not any more.  The eyes, once a warm light brown, amber in the right light, were those of a beast, sclera turned black.  The rest of the face was almost completely unrecognisable, features replaced with white 'hair' flowing down past scales of the same colour, opalescent as the light hit them.  The beast's claws were vicious, and its body elongating by the second.  'Hands' - or what _used_ to have been hands - ripped and tore at the doors and walls and ceiling, bringing rubble crashing down around both guards and inmates alike.

The head, now an unholy mix between lion and lizard features, snapped toward the guards, and the inmates that were left forgotten in its wake ran for their lives, in fear of the idea of _what if it's me it comes after next_.  

Growing jaws tore and both hind and forelegs kept the creature grounded, and when more men came, the only attention it gave to give the impression that this might 'worry' it was to snort, back up a little, tail thrashing from side to side.

Then, fire lit the place up from the inside.

The dragon tore its way throuh the facility room by room, corridor by corridor, seeming to seek out specific places and persons to bring down in its rage.

Within the hour, it had reached the size of the prison itself, and was taking the place apart like a small boy might demolish the sandcastle he'd just made and had found he didn't like any more.  Fire lit up the night sky for miles around, and the moon shone, reflecting off of those white scales tinted orange with the flames and red with the splatter of blood.

The screams of all those still inside - and many fleeing, having taken the opportunity the broken-apart walls had given them - were drowned out when the massive creature roared to the heavens, breaking the glass of the windows for miles around.

Not all that far away in Satellite, the roar was heard, and many looked out of their windows, across the island that used to be a city, to see what it was.

Jack Atlas, sitting on his throne in a disused theatre, heard.  The sound reverberated around the buildings, shaking dust out of crevices.  The hairs on the small of his neck stood on end and he gripped the armrests of the chair, unnerved for no reason he could logically define.  Something he could only put down to a base instinct that told him to  _run.  Run, now, before bigger-predator-that-is-angry gets you._  It wasn't cowardice to run from someone who was that much more powerful than you were, who would crush you in its grip like you were nothing.

But Jack was not just neko-youkai.  He was part human - his mother, not that he remembered much of her - and he was a  _king._   Kings didn't run.

No matter how much they wanted to.

Yuusei and Crow noticed, and wished that they hadn't.  A nightmare had come to life in their turf, and there was nothing they could do to help anyone who got in its way.

None of them recognised their old friend in the beast they saw, or heard, or were told tales of.  To them, it was only a feral youkai out to wreak vengeance on a place of hatred that very few were sad to see gone.  They mourned the loss of so many lives, but most of all they mourned Kiryu, who they assumed to have been in there when the dragon had struck.

No one could have thought that the two might be one and the same.


	4. Chapter 4

For many months afterwards, no word was heard of the beast that had caused such wanton destruction of Sector Security property, and no explanation was given of the roar that had been heard for miles around.

Those who were still sceptical of the existence of such things as spirits and demons began to say that it was mere arson, a riot, a jailbreak of some kind.  That the roar was a result of some explosion or other.  None of it explained just _how_ some of those men had died, the specific burns some had been inflicted with.  Nor even the fact that so many still remembered and would tell of a great white beast coming from the direction of solitary confinement, golden eyes ablaze and when the fires started, white fur and scales turning to black and red and later brown as blood clotted and hardened around the mouth, the claws, the scales, anywhere it might have flown.

The tales told by those who still believed said that it was a beast the likes of which had not been seen in many a year, and that humans had angered the gods.  Some saw opportunity in this, and made to create their own fortune from the fear of others - a pendant won't cost you much, it'll keep the beasts away, or how about this potion, they hate the smell! - regardless of whether such things would work, and the strength of their own belief, causing those in the know to look down on them.

There would be no pendants or potions if the youkai came to their doors in the night in anger.  Nothing would save them, unless the spirits were feeling merciful.

Jack Atlas would frown whenever he heard any of these.

He knew the truth of the matter better than anyone, other than perhaps Yuusei and Crow, much as he'd like to wish otherwise.  But Kiryu had been the only dragon type of youkai he'd even _heard of_ , let alone known to be in the general area.

Add that to the fact that the facility had been torched, and Kiryu's special ability was with _fire_ , and... it didn't paint a pretty picture.

What he wondered, was why his old friend hadn't come looking for his, and the others', blood.  Youkai never took slights lightly, and for any of them to even still be alive was, he had to admit, no small miracle.

He had always quietly envied the fact that Kiryu had been stronger than he was.  Age was nothing; given the fact that they were neither of them human, they would both last far longer than the other two barring malice or accidents.  But _raw power_ , on the other hand.  Now that, he had been able to see in the white-haired boy every time they had met.  It had rankled him back then, when Team Satisfaction was still a thing, but now?  With the news going around as it was?

It was a clear thing that as he was, Jack would never be able to stand toe-to-toe with Kiryu on a purely physical level.  Even when it came to special abilities, the 'magic' of their kind, his was mere trickery to the kind that could take down an entire prison just like _that_.

When he thought about it, he found himself shaking, his hair standing up on end.

When it came down to it, he was a cat.  The son of a human being and a cat that had lived long enough to be something more.  Every so often, he would experiment when he was alone, when no one was there to see, when the theatre was dark and echoed.  He would conjure up an illusion, or create light, small things, so small.  

Compared to a dragon with no human blood that Jack knew of... to Kiryu _as he was now_... he'd be swatted aside, claws like pinpricks if felt at all.

Despite most of their fighting having been done via duel, Jack felt deep within himself that if Kiryu were alive, instinct would lead him to go for something far more direct.

The dragon had tasted blood, now.  It would be all too easy to give in and go looking for more.

Jack's thoughts circled around in his head to the point where he berated himself for being so easily taken in by fear.

From the time when he had begun to realise the truth, however, his sleep had been uneasy, and what little he did get, was full of notions of being _found_.  Or, worse yet, of being found _last._

Night terrors made him brood more often in the isolation of the theatre, away from any who would be able to see that it wasn't just poor lighting.  They worsened his moods to the point of snapping even when he himself could see that it was uncalled for.

_"Hn-hn-hn-hn-!"_

Which was when the small man with the clown face made himself known, and offered him a... proposition.

The Director had heard of him, and had become interested.  The city, the clown man said, needed a King.  Someone to look up to.

Bring the D-Wheel that Fudo Yuusei had been working on and Stardust Dragon, and he would be allowed to pass through into Neo Domino uncontested, he was told.

The two halves of himself were tearing him in two.  One side wanted out of the trash heap.  The other knew that this was where the only people who cared were, who he also cared _for_.  One side reminded him of what it would do to his spirit, the breaking of trust and of honour if the plans he was already going through in his mind were implemented.  The other beat it down, ruthlessly, saying that it didn't matter.  That none of it would matter if they all ended up dead.

And so the option was given to Yuusei.  Save Rally from drowning out at sea (Kiryu was a creature of fire, the water was safe, wasn't it, he'd never shown any kind of fear but water against fire had to mean _something_ ) or hold on to the D-Wheel, the card.  It was criminally easy to see what his foster-brother would choose.

It was only one card he needed, and that was the only one he took, and by the time Yuusei and Rally found shore again, Jack was long gone.

Maybe beyond the pipeline he'd be safe.  Maybe away from Yuusei and the others, the night terrors would no longer be able to find him.  

Anything.

Just to not feel like he was being hunted.

_Anything._

He was supposed to be a 'king'.  How was he supposed to be such a thing and live in fear at the same time?

It was an impossibility.  And Jack Atlas did not deal in impossibilities.


End file.
